RMU Hockey Ranked in National Top 20 for Season-High Fourth Consecutive Week
By Matt Gajtka
RMU’s leading scorers Cody Wydo (left) and Zac Lynch celebrate a goal earlier this season. (Credit: Jason Cohn)
NEVILLE ISLAND, Pa. – Although the Robert Morris University men’s hockey team was idle over the weekend, it held onto a spot in a prominent national ranking.
The first-place Colonials were ranked 19th in the United States College Hockey Online (USCHO) poll released Monday, the fourth consecutive week they have been listed among the nation’s top 20 teams. Overall, this is the 11th time this season that RMU (20-5-5, 17-3-4 AHC) has been ranked by the USCHO’s panel of voters.
Published by the Associated Press, the USCHO poll consists of 50 voters, including coaches, beat writers and other sports professionals from across the country. Prior to this season, RMU had never been ranked in consecutive polls, but it has strung together a pair of four-week stretches so far this year.
More from Robert Morris University
- Big Week for Robert Morris University Colonials Athletics
- Three Rivers Classic: Hometown team RMU prevails, wins championship
- Three Rivers Classic: Robert Morris vs Penn State recap
- Three Rivers Classic preview: Robert Morris vs Penn State showdown
- Rodney Pryor, RMU guard, named Northeast Conference Player of the Week
In other national rankings, the Colonials are 24th in both the PairWise and Ratings Percentage Index (RPI). PairWise mimics the NCAA’s tournament selection process, while RPI is one of the metrics used to set the 16-team postseason field. Also, RMU was one of six teams in the “others receiving votes” section of the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine top 15, coming in at an unofficial 17th.
Currently leading the Atlantic Hockey Conference by seven points, Robert Morris will tote a Division I-best eight-game unbeaten streak (7-0-1) into its upcoming weekend series at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). The Colonials, who won the AHC postseason title last March, need to earn two more points to clinch their first-ever regular-season banner.
No matter what happens in the final two weeks of the regular season, RMU has already locked up a first-round playoff bye, so it will start its postseason run on the second weekend of March with a best-of-three quarterfinal series at 84 Lumber Arena.
The Colonials have clinched their fifth consecutive season at .500 or better, and the current senior quartet of Cody Wydo, Scott Jacklin, David Rigatti and Jeff Jones is the winningest class in 11 years of RMU Division I hockey, claiming 76 victories since 2010-11. Over the past five seasons, Robert Morris ranks first in the AHC – and 13th out of 59 D-I teams – in terms of overall winning percentage (.576).
After traveling to RIT this weekend, the Colonials close their regular season with a home-and-home against Niagara, with Senior Night set for Saturday, Feb. 28.